To Cast Long Shadows
by Stealthweasle01
Summary: The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and once again Fairy Tail had dissolved into another pointless and stupid brawl. Follow two new mages in everyone's favorite guild as they bicker, fight, and insult their way to some sort of mutual respect and grow to realize that being a Fairy Tail wizard means more than just explosions and collateral damage.
1. Chapter 1: Headaches and Explosions

**To Cast Long Shadows**

 **Chapter 1: Headaches and Explosions  
**

* * *

 _'Well, it was a day like any other. The birds were singing, the sun was shining and once again Fairy Tail had dissolved into another pointless and stupid brawl.'_

I sighed as a body flew past my head, and slammed into a now very annoyed Erza Scarlet, who had been sitting in the corner enjoying her cake. _'This is just great. I'm dead broke AND surrounded by a bunch of raving lunatics.'_ Prior to joining it was only the former. Joining a guild wasn't my first choice by any means, but I needed the money. As it turns out, scholar wasn't a well paid profession and several years spent traveling had worn my savings down to next to nothing. The idiot that had slammed into Erza quickly leapt up and tried to run away. _'Yeah good luck with that moron.'_

On top of all my other problems, I still hadn't found a place to live within my rapidly dwindling price range, and I was getting real tired of being around the guild 24/7. _'God why are these fights so loud?'_ I thought, rubbing my temples to try and relieve the throbbing headache building behind my eyes.

They weren't all bad, Mirajane was kind, Erza was fairly serious most of the time, Levy was a fellow scholar, and Laxus, though terrifying, at least wasn't one of those preachy "Believe in the power of friendship" kind of masters, but the rest of them? I sighed, letting my head fall onto the book in front of me. They were complete idiots at best and outright insane at worst. You had the unapologetic drunk, the pathological stripper, the moronic pyromaniac and the oh so sickeningly sweet spirit mage that had probably been sane once before she met the rest of them. And that was just the old guard. For god's sake the most sane person in the guild was a talking, flying, black cat.

Still, there was good money to be made in guild work. As long as I could build up the capital to continue my studies I could put up with everything else that came with it. With that in mind I got up and walked over to the job board, trying my best to ignore the screams of agony from the brawlers behind me as Erza dealt swift vengeance for her fallen confection.

* * *

 **\- POV Aidan Moore -**

 _'Oh shit.'_ I saw the cake fall and knew enough about her to run. I tried, I really did, At least give me credit for that. I was quickly grabbed by a surprisingly strong, metal covered arm and found myself looking at the murderous face of Erza Scarlet. I barely had time to register her shouts of anger and lament before I was flug into the nearest wall.

 _'Uh, what the hell did I do? It wasn't even my fault.'_ Picking myself up and looking around, I wondered what in the world had possessed me join this guild. Was it because they were the strongest guild in Fiore? No. Money? No. Hot ladies? Still no. The main reason I joined was because anyone could. Hopefully I'd find what I was looking for but of course I'd had no luck, I never did. Not here, not the place before, and of course not where I was from.

But Erza's rage clearly wasn't sated from my pain, she flew into the melee, a flurry of punches, kicks, and throws, brutally reaping vengence from all involved. Unfortunately this put her between me and the door and I was NOT gonna risk going anywhere near that. The screams of pain and thump of bodies slamming together split the air as I retreated towards the bar. Slipping out the back seemed like a favorable idea.

Despite my decision to bid a hasty retreat, the job board caught my eye as I passed. While I wasn't the kind of guy that worried about money, I was always looking for a chance to get stronger. Grabbing a job on the way out couldn't hurt.

 _'Find a thing. No. Have you seen this monster? No thanks. Repair building. Why would you need a wizard for that?'_ I looked over the thing twice for a hunting job but found none so I ended up settling for an escort mission flyer. If I can't go looking for something to hit, then maybe something to hit would come to me. Seemed logical.

Only one problem, the job request asked for two or more wizards. That explained why the pay was an impressive 100,000 Jewel, I'd have to split it with someone. "Eh, whatever." I muttered as I pulled the flier, turning to see who I could ask to come.

And found myself looking at the pile of bodies left over from Erza's rampage. There were only a dozen people left standing, the remainder nothing but a spread of groaning bodies rubbing their sores as they picked themselves off the floor. I wondered where Erza had disappeared for a split second, but quickly dismissed the worry as it wasn't important to my problem.

The closest person was a guy standing a few feet away who was also looking at the job board. Slightly shorter than me, he was skinny and clearly still in his teens. He had slicked-back black hair and blue eyes, his clothing just a simply grey jacket over a black shirt and jeans. I'd heard his name once or twice, but couldn't remember it for the life of me. Luca? Lucina? Something like that.

"Hey, if you're looking for a job with good pay, I need a second person for this." I said, handing over the flier.

He quickly scanning it before exhaling deeply."Why not? Any excuse to get out of this madhouse for a few days. Zentopia knows I need the money." He looked at me weirdly. "Who are you again? I need something to call you besides that idiot who was stupid enough to mess with Erza Scarlet."

 _'And just like that, I already don't like this guy.'_ I tried to play it off with a laugh."You saw that 'eh. I didn't mess with her on purpose, someone sucker punched me. The name's Aidan Moore. What should I call you besides prick? Or do you prefer asshole?"

"Ooh scathing." He responded sarcastically, "My name is Lucifer Skia. Anyway as much as I'd like to stay here while you fire base insults at me, I think Erza's looking for more victims. We should probably leave now, very quickly."

 _'Well this guy actually has half a brain, there's a surprise. If worst comes to worst, I can use him as a practice dummy to pass the time.'_

* * *

 **\- POV: Lucifer Skia -**

Two days of walking with not a sight nor sound of trouble had done nothing except to prove our presence utterly pointless. Then again why do I care? I'm being paid either way. Still an attack would do wonders to break up the monotony. I had already finished the book I'd brought within the first four hours of the journey and had spent the rest of the trip silently pondering how I would go about robbing a caravan such as the one we were guarding. Purely for entertainment's sake of course.

The convoy itself was nothing more than eight covered wagons of merchants and their goods, two dozen people at most including the children. We were riding right in the middle so we could get to either end of the train as fast as possible.

Aidan had taken to alternating between napping and walking alongside the procession, only joining me in the shade of our cart to inform me that he had nothing to report and for quick meals. Now that I'd finally had time to observe my companion without the distraction of the guild I found myself surprised at how normal he looked. Brown hair, maybe a little under six feet, appeared to be in good shape. Admittedly the black eyes were slightly creepy but the guild tended to have a lot worse. His choice of clothing was a little ridiculous, a t-shirt isn't a great choice for an eight day journey, but that wasn't my problem.

Conversation had been fairly sparse all things considered. As it turns out, neither of us were exactly social butterflies. I wasn't even sure what his magic was, not that I particularly cared, I was sure I'd find out if it became important. _'On the other hand I probably should at least try to learn something about the person I may be entrusting my life to, unlikely as that is. Social convention and what not.'_

"So, if you die can I have your share of the reward?" I asked next time he jumped in for food. _'Wow Luc, great conversation starter.'_

"Yeah whatever, but I'm taking yours if you die." Aidan responded absently poking through his bag, he wasn't particularly skilled at small talk either it seemed.

"Seems fair, but me dying won't be a problem." This was all completely theoretical of course, the chances of us being attacked, let alone dying on this mission were fairly low. Even if we were attacked, bandits such as the ones the client was worried about, would pose little threat. They would have only a few mages at most and probably crappy ones at that. Any criminal with serious magic power would have joined a Dark Guild.

"Oh really, because I've learned when you don't think something will happen, it usually does." Aidan clearly didn't understand sarcasm. "Don't tell me the odds are low, because if nothing happens I have no reason to be here."

"It's been three days with not as much as a whiff of trouble, we're already halfway to Peace Village and it's broad daylight on a well traveled road." I argued. "Who's going to be stupid enough to attack us."

It was right then that an explosion announced that someone was stupid enough to attack us.

"If you say 'I told you so' I will burn out your retinas." I stated, covering my face with one hand and sighing as the universe continued to fuck with my life.

For the first time I saw Aidan smile with a gleam of mischief in his eye. "It's about time. By the way, I told you so." Then he'd jumped out and was off running toward the front of the caravan.

"Fuck my life." I lamented to the empty air before following my smug companion.

By the time I had caught up Aidan had already engaged the enemy. They were what you'd expect from bandits. Mostly armed with knives and clubs with a handful of guns thrown here and there. Pathetic. His first attack had knocked most of them to the ground. They didn't get back up. _'Rude, he didn't save any for me.'_

"Hey I was bored too- I mean not bad. Still they must have been pretty weak." I finished after catching myself mid sentence. "Doesn't matter though, I'll handle these last two. I could use the exercise."

Only two of them were still standing. One was bulky and wearing a tattered wife-beater with tattoos covering his arms and neck. The other one didn't look impressive but he was the first to speak. "Well, well, well. Looks like we have some C-class wizards trying to play hero." I bet couldn't have sounded more pretentious if he'd tried.

"Well, well, well, what are you a supervillain?" I retorted smugly, "You must have dropped your cat somewhere. Actually it probably ran away when it smelled you, for god's sake take a shower. And with the way your companion there looks I would recommend that you be careful not to drop the soap while your at it."

The tattooed one spoke up, his voice was deep and slow, he was clearly the stupid one. "Careful what you say skinny. I got life for killing stupid pricks like you. I broke out and now I'll break you." A magic circle appeared and metal chains flew at me.

"There is no one like me, only me, and I will make sure you remember that scum." I put an end to the conversation as I fired off my first spell. " **Sunlight!** " I invoked as I rolled to the left to dodge the chains, coming up on one knee and extending my arm to fire the bright burst of sunlight. He sidestepped the spell bringing his arms up to cast more chains.

"I will admit, chain make magic had not been what I was expecting. I mean CHAIN magic! Not iron or steel magic. Chain magic. Way to limit yourself, jackass!" I taunted as an explosion rang out from my right.

I ducked under the next stream of steel and fired off three more bursts of light in quick succession. The first missed altogether, the second he managed to dodge, and the third only grazed his arm. _'Damn, I really need to work on my aim.'_ Still even grazed it must have hurt, and my opponent clearly took exception to this. Chains burst from the ground all around me.

" _Godray!_ " I blew apart the first one with the focused Solar spell. The second however managed to wrap around my ankle. _'Oh Crap Oh Crap Oh Cra-'_ It pulled me skyward and slammed me back into the ground. It hurt, a lot. It proceeded to spin me through the air in a wide circle as its creator laughed wildly.

"Ha what are you gonna do now punk, and you were all Mr. Big Mouth earlier and here you are screaming like a little gir-" He cut off as he tripped over the small crater I'd blown in the ground at his feet. The metal went loose as the chain mage lost his concentration. I had aimed that attack at his head, but hey, it worked. I took the chance to close the distance between us as he stood back up.

" _Sunlight!_ " I cast as I ran forward.

"This shit again kid, really. **Chain!** " He brought a chain up to block my spell, then it lunged at me. "You never learn, do you?"

"I doubt there is anything scum like you could teach me." I retorted as I danced around and past the attack. This left my back open but if this worked it wouldn't matter.

" **Dazzle!** " The light flashed from my palm. Dazzle was a very pretty name for a very brutal attack. I had been on the receiving end of it before, imagine staring into the sun for an hour. It had rendered more than one person at least partially blind. He brought up his arms and chains to block it but it was just as futile as trying to block out the sun.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT!" He roared in agony as he shielded his eyes. Eventually the pain subsided enough for him to force his eyes open only to find my hand in front of his face.

I was less than a foot away. I couldn't have missed if I had wanted to.

" **Godray!** " I incanted point blank.

The explosion threw him twenty feet backward where he landed on his right arm with a sickening crunch. He wasn't getting back up. I took a moment to catch my breath before turning to see the fight that was still going on between my ally and the other bandit. Using Godray at point blank hadn't done me a world of good either and so I decided to be generous and leave the last fight to my comrade.

* * *

 **\- POV: Aidan -**

As soon as I saw the magic circle appear I jumped to the right and rushed forward. His partner intercepted me with a fireball that exploded as it hit the ground, forcing me to jump back.

"Lame." I taunted. "You're going to have to be way faster than that to hit me."

He had a cocky smile to match my own. "That was just a warning shot. Let's try this." The ground below my feet glowed and exploded. With no time to dodge, I was launched into the air and hit the ground hard. I was going to enjoy punching that smirk off his face, but didn't get up right away.

"What's the matter. One blast and you're done already. Don't tell me you wasted all your magic wiping out my minions." I didn't respond as I pushed myself to my feet. "You're going to pay for them too. **Minestep!** " The ground below me exploded again but this time I used it to boost my jump. I was going to come down right on top of him. He saw me coming, thrusting his hands toward me he called. " **Explosion!** " This attack turned out to be his fireball from earlier. There was no way to dodge in midair, his attack hit me dead on and exploded with far more force than his other attacks.

As I got to my feet again."I see why you said the first was a warning shot," I spit out some blood, "but do you mind if I stop toying around now. You're fireworks are starting to bore me."

"So you were just holding back." He chuckled, "I thought so. In that case. **Minefield!** "

A magic circle flashed around his feet but nothing else happened. "Let me guess. I step on the wrong spot and go boom, right?" I asked calmly, no fear in my voice.

His cocky smile widened again. "That's one way to use it, or I could **Detonate!** " Everything exploded. "So did you survive that? Are you still in one piece?" The rogue mage taunted into the dust cloud he'd created.

"Your magic has a major oversight," I felt rather then saw his smile falter, "with all this dust you can't see what you tried to blow up. **Shadow Hold!** " An array of black arms shot from the obscured battlefield, grabbing and wrapping themselves around him.

"How did you block that? I didn't feel any magic power." He struggled against the tendrils holding him."

"Shadow Magic is untraceable. If you can't use it, you can't sense it." I said as I walked clear of the cloud. "Now do you want to give up, or do I have to beat you into submission?"

He finally noticed my calm, half bored demeanor. "Wipe that damn look off your face! **Outburst!** " It was just that, an explosion around his entire body that broke my Shadow Hold. "Eruption!" He started forming a large sphere of his explosive magic over his head. If I let him used that it would hit a lot more than just me.

" **Shadow Hold!** " I called, now with some actual agency. This time the shadow arms came out of the ground behind him, pulling him down and pinning him to the ground. " **Shadow Wall.** " A black barrier sprung up around him, sealing him with his explosive ball.

Finally I whispered, " **Shadow Break.** " I didn't need to see inside to know what happened. The shadows inside disrupted his magic and the energy did exactly what it meant to do.

It exploded.

As my barrier disappeared I took a look around, my opponent was unconscious from the force of his own bomb and the area beside the road was nothing more than a field of craters. The carts themselves were undamaged as were the caravanners hiding behind them, terrified but unhurt. All in all, the damage was minor.

Throwing the almost-a-corpse over my shoulder, I tossed him into the back of one of the carts we were protecting. I used a random metal chain someone had just left lying around to tie his hands to the back of his neck. He could still try to blow his way out, but if he did it was gonna hurt.

It was about this moment I remembered that Lucifer had been fighting the other guy. I turned to find him coming over, dragging the unconscious prison bitch behind him.

"Looks like you won. Was he a challenge?" I asked not out of dislike, but out of curiosity. "Mine wasn't."

"Not really no, I didn't even have to resort to any of the stronger Solar spells. A shame, it's a really beautiful day for them. And what kind of dumbass chooses straight up Chain-Make magic of all things." He responded nonchalantly.

"About that, I never did ask what magic you use. So you're a Solar Mage?"

"Yes and no. I am a Celestial Light Mage. Really _The_ Celestial Light Mage. It's pretty much a lost magic at this point. I fight using the power of the Celestial Lights, the Sun, Moon and Stars." He corrected in an almost teacher-like manner. He seemed way to proud of it.

"What about yours?" He continued, "From what I caught of your fight it's some kind of Shadow Magic, correct?"

"If that's want you want to call it, yes." I answered, stretching one arm out behind my head. "But I for all I know that might be its real name or not." I quickly redirected the conversation back to him. "How did you learn a Lost Magic?"

I saw something flash in those blue eyes. "Eh very few things are ever really lost. Just forgotten or misplaced." He replied vaguely.

 _'If he's not going to tell, then I'm going to ask.'_ "Alright then. Let's clean up the rest of them. The sooner we leave, the sooner we get paid." Walking towards the area where the bandits were still sleeping off my first spell, I turned and called back. "And one last thing. Are you always such an unbearable ass?"

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **This is a collab with my friend Zorn42421 and our first posted work for both of us. Our only goal for it is to not be total trash.**

 **Non-constructive reviews will be deleted and/or ignored. That being said, I hope you enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own the FT, anime, manga, or anything else. If we did, it wouldn't be fanfiction.**


	2. Chapter 2: Dark, Damp, and Boiling Hot

**To Cast Long Shadows**

 **Chapter 2: Dark, Damp, and Boiling Hot  
**

* * *

 **\- POV: Lucifer -**

The rest of the journey to Peace Village passed with no further incidents. I did question why we were dragging an entire bandit gang around with us, but Aidan had said that they might have had a bounty on them so I didn't complain. I was rather annoyed to find out they didn't. Two days spent dragging around a bunch of filthy bandits for no reason. If I had my way we would've hooked them up and used then to pull a cart but apparently that was cruel and unusual punishment according to the caravan master. No it would have been cruel and unusual punishment to burn out there retinas, as had been my first instinct. Murdering scum like them deserved nothing less.

The four day journey back to the guild also went without a hitch. The few conversations I had with my traveling companion were silted and stayed limited to a few topics, combat being the biggest. Aidan seemed a little bit obsessed with fighting, but he at least hadn't managed to burn down half of Peace Village when we arrived, so I reserved judgment for now. Beggars can't be choosers after all.

By the time we got back they had finally managed to calm down Erza, thank Zentopia.

Anyway, I still need to find somewhere to live and though the 50,000 Jewel certainly helped, I was still not able to find anywhere I could afford and was rapidly losing my patience with the rest of the guild.

And that is where Aidan found me, banging my head against the bar, trying to delay the onset of the madness.

"What do you want, Moore?" I asked, ignoring the pain as I continued to drive my head into the bar.

"I wanted to ask why you're disrupting my afternoon beer with that annoying banging." His sarcasm was not amusing.

"First of all, I'm broke and getting real tired of sleeping in train stations, second, I'm being driven mad by my own guildmates, and third, if Gajeel gets up on that stage one more time I am going to beat him with his own guitar."

"You just made 50,000 Jewel." He said.

"That isn't enough money to stay at a hotel for a month, let alone enough to rent an apartment." I lamented sadly.

He took a second to think before replying. "I see. So here you are, lamenting over the fact you have no money, when there's a well stocked job board right over there. That's kinda pathetic don't you think?"

"The problem is with how much money I can make on a monthly basis, Moore." I responded, resting my head on the bar. "Even a crappy apartment around here is still 60,000 a month.

Something landed on and rolled off my head. I turned my neck enough to see what it was. It was a lemon. "Oh real cute. Are you going to say when life gives you lemons make lemonade? If you do I will follow up on that retina threat from earlier."

"I wasn't. I was gonna say that there are plenty of jobs to make fast money if you look. The lemon was a gift from an old lady that had me carry a few crates of them across town. It was only a 2000 Jewel payment,but it's money I made in the time you've wasted here. So get up and stop wasting time that you could be spending on better things." Moore actually surprised me with how serious he sounded.

"I suppose you have a point. It's just hard for me to settle down into any sort of pattern." I admitted, "I don't suppose you know any good places to live?"

"I'm sure there's a few empty rooms in my apartment building, but you're focusing on the wrong problem here. Stop focusing on the fact you don't have a place to live and start focusing on making the cash to afford that place. There's no pattern, no puzzle, just a goal and a means to achieve it."

 _'Oh god platitudes, save me from the platitudes.'_ I opened my mouth to respond in a suitably scathing and cynical manner.

The sudden flash of anger cut me off before I could say a word. "Don't even open your mouth." Aidan's face had turned a rather foreboding shade of red. The constant sarcasm might have started to become slightly predictable. "Come on. We're going on a job." It wasn't a request, it was an order.

"Without any planning? Are you insane? What about travel planning? Food? Information gathering?" I sputtered as Aidan grabbed my arm and quite literally dragged me across the bar to the job board, not even stopping as I slammed into someone along the way. Kana cursed loudly at the both of us.

He was unfazed, "You're mixing up your priorities again. You get the job flyer that tells you where you're going _before_ you start trying to get there." The extra emphasis on 'before' made me feel like he was treating me like a child.

He pulled one down and dragged me back down the bar to show it to Mira. "This one is perfect for you. Excavation jobs are usually long, so the team will have tents to sleep in, food to eat, and you get paid by the day rather than for the whole job. You'll have a place to stay and you won't have to pay for food so this will help you save money and beats sleeping on a bench. Now let's go."

* * *

 **\- POV: Aidan -**

This was actually going pretty well. It had taken six full days of Luc's constant complaining to get to the dig site, but since then we'd been so busy that the Light Mage had no time to complain.

Luc's magic apparently was no good for digging without a major explosion and the archaeologists didn't want to risk damaging the structure so he was being limited to digging like a normal human being. Surprisingly, he seemed to enjoy talking to the archaeologist's about what they'd studied to find this temple-thingy they were uncovering. I was just happy to finally get some peace.

The structure we were looking for had supposedly been carved into the side of this mountain we were on. The dig team had a theory that it had been buried under a landslide decades or maybe even centuries ago but I didn't particularly care and I didn't really think about it. Except to wonder why they thought anything was down here at all. I'd spent the last five days using my magic to speed up the digging process, moving boulders and dirt far faster than a dozen people with shovels ever could, but I had found nothing that made me think there was a structure burning under all this dirt and rock. So boring.

"We're getting close," The team leader said, "I can feel it in my bones." His name was Michael Ramesh, fairly old, a bit short and stood a little hunched over from all his years of archaeology, but his mind was clearly still as sharp as ever. He was dressed like your stereotypical archaeologist and had spent the last few days talking with me to help pass the time. I could tell you for certain he has a wife, two kids, and a dog. However some of his stories had just been so outrageous I couldn't possibly believe them.

"That's good." I replied as my shadow hands removed a five foot boulder. "Once we find the entrance we should crack open a bottle of champagne to celebrate."

He gave a jovial a chuckle. "That would be nice indeed, but if you have one I'd recommend saving it till after we've been inside. It'll help wash out the dust."

As we were speaking the dirt around the area I pulled that rock was pushed aside by a wall of my shadows, revealing yet another slab of stone. Once again I sent my tendrils around the edges and behind it to pull it loose. Something cracked loudly, the sound of stone scraping on stone rang out, and the earth above it caved in.

"That's new?" I questioned as I set the slab on top of my large pile of removed rubble. The old man cautiously climbed up to examined the piece. "We've found it! Come look! This is mortared stone on each side. You must've pulled out part of a wall. I'll wager causing part of the ceiling to cave in."

 _'Finally some progress.'_ "Alright, I'm going to clear a path in." Moving the earth in a way that didn't cause more to fall in wasn't easy, even more so because I didn't want to risk getting any closer lest it collapse on me. Eventually I made a gap large enough that a person could pass through. "Forget about finding the entrance boss, I made one."

The older man was as ecstatic as a giddy child. "This is excellent! Most excellent! I wish you hadn't damaged the structure to do it, but no use worrying about what's already done."

"So should we go exploring?"

"Unfortunately no." The man's expression became more than a little disappointed as he said it. "As much as I'd like to, we need to tell the others about this. If we went in on our own and something happened to trap us they wouldn't know."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." I agreed as we turned toward the camp, but the old man had a new pep in his step.

* * *

 **\- POV: Lucifer -**

I found myself rather enjoying this trip even if it involved a bit too much physical labor for my taste. The archaeologists had an extensive knowledge of early Fioran culture and it made for excellent conversation. The flip side of this was we really didn't make as much progress as we probably should have, but all work and no play as they say.

Aidan's team brought mixed news. On one hand, they had found an entrance to the ruins. On the other, most of the ruins seem to have been buried over the centuries. It pained me to admit it but I wasn't the best when it came to caves. But these ruins were clearly of the same origins as the temple. It was worth the risk no matter how distasteful I would find the whole affair. We decided to send in a team tomorrow morning after everyone had had a chance to rest up after the long days of digging.

We spent a few hours next morning getting all the necessary equipment ready and packing some emergency provisions before we approached the ruins. I had to restrain myself from punching Aidan when I found out that he'd damage the structure to make our entrance.

We entered the ruins in single file, carefully stepping over the broken masonry. Once past the caved in section the path widened enough for four people to stand abreast. The air was stale. The magic lamps that the excavation team had brought cast our shadows along the walls around us as we moved through the narrow corridors.

There were occasionally passages branching off to the left and right. Some of these quickly led to rooms which yielded little more than broken pottery, everything else lost to the slow decay of time. The others seemed to extend much further so we stuck to what seemed to be the main corridor. Theories were passed around about if we were in some kind of living quarters. I found myself wishing for something, anything to confirm that this place was of the same origin as the other. Eventually we came to the end of the hall and were confronted with a series of staircases. After a short discussion the group decided to go down.

It seemed as if we were starting to enter the catacombs of whatever this place had once been. The blank walls of the previous section started to be replaced with intricate carvings. We stopped for a while to examine these, several members of the research team pulled out cameras to take pictures. Some of the images were unrecognizable, either by design or simple erosion, but many of the simpler images were still clear enough to make out. The sun, the moon, a king or priest of some kind, and a dragon. Myself and the archaeologists found all of this extremely engrossing, Dalyn of course didn't seem particularly excited, but considering the average intelligence of the guild as a whole this wasn't a real shocker.

Eventually, we were forced to leave our examination and continue further into the ruins. After what seemed like hours of mapping different corridors (apparently no one thought to bring a watch) we emerged into a chamber much larger than any we had seen before in this ruin. The room was round with a lowered floor. Stairs split the stone benches that lined each level of the room. The bottom floor of the room was flat, polished stone. Opposite the entrance we stood was a kind of raised box that overlooked the rest, giving it an amphitheater kind of look. If I had to guess I would say the chamber was a courtroom or speaking hall of some kind. I half-turned to Michael to confirm my suspicions, but something caught my eye.

Hidden partially out of sight behind the lower set of benches lay something stark white. Bones. Michael and I were the first down to the skeleton. The once living man was little more than a pile of random ancient bones, but after all this time there shouldn't be anything left here at all? Ancient or otherwise, they should've been long turned to dust. It meant whoever this had been had died here long after the original inhabitants had abandoned this place but before it was all sealed underground. Only one other thing remained from whoever this had been, a disk shaped pendant sat where its owner's neck had once been. I turned it over looking for an insignia or image of some kind, only to be dumbfounded as the dust brushed away to reveal a rising sun with a sword thrust through it. My eyes widened in shock, my mind sent reeling as I tried to understand why this was here. This symbol I knew all too well.

* * *

 **\- POV: Aidan -**

The sound of slow clapping reached my ears and I immediately looked for the source. A person stepped into the room from another entrance. It was almost impossible to make out more than a silhouette in the darkness, but it was definitely a woman's voice. "Look who finally decided to show up, you really shouldn't keep a lady waiting."

"And why were you waiting for us?" I asked calmly.

She lit her own magic lantern, revealing her face, short, spiky, red hair, and clothes. She was wearing a red crop top that barely covered her chest, leaving her midriff exposed, black leather pants, and had a backpack slung over one shoulder. She moved with confidence in more than just her curvy sex appeal, the confidence of someone who was within their element and ready to put it to the test.

"To fight over the relic of course. I could've just taken it and left, but I want to see what a Fairy Tail wizard can do."

I smiled, this was something I could understand. "You're looking for a fight then. Must be my lucky day."

"Wait! You can't fight here. This temples is hundreds of years old." Cried a member of the dig team.

"Seems only appropriate to fight where the relic was hidden. Now shut up old man, this is between me and the wizard."

"Wait a minute, relic?" Luc asked eyes narrowing.

The woman rolled her eyes as she set her lantern down and moved to the bottom floor. "Of course. Why else would you be here? Now unless you want to get buried alive I suggest running."

I got the feeling this Redhead could back up that threat. "All of you get back to the surface now."

"Um, I realize I probably should have told you this sooner, but I'm really not the best underground." Luc was clearly trying to act calm and failing.

"What? Why didn't you-" I started before I realized it was not the time to get mad. "Get them out of here." I pointed at the archeologists rushing from the room.

"Excuse me. Getting bored over here." She was being awfully patient and polite. It made me wonder why the hell she was waiting at all. If the situation was reversed I would've attacked already.

"Ok, just one last question. Where's the relic? I'm not fighting you for something you don't have."

With an annoyed groan she let her backpack slide off. Catching it with one arm, she opened it and pulled out a roll of fabric. "There ya go. Happy now?" She quickly dropped it back in and returned the pack to her shoulders."

"Very." I replied as I launched the first attack. Dozens of my shadow fists sprung from the darkness.

She jumped back and slammed her hands against the ground. A wall of glowing rock erupted to block my attacks. As I redirected my attack to go around the barricade, bright red globs of liquid flew over it aimed towards me. I jumped to one of the higher levels and watched them splatter around where I'd been. Returning my gaze to her wall, I saw it stop glowing and solidify as she jumped over it. With a flourish of her arms and the sound of glass breaking, small chunks of the barrackade broke off, coming at me at high speed. I blocked with a shield of darkness only to feel the ground beneath my feet grow hot. I was forced to jump away again as the stone floor below me melted.

Ok, she's not bad. Time to stop messing around. " **Shadow Ball.** " I launched a ball of darkness in mid air.

" **Lava Geyser.** " Again she slammed her hands onto the ground. This time a magic circle appeared and a stream of lava shot from it. Our attacks met and my blast sent lava flying everywhere. I had to dive behind a row of benches and pray it would protect me.

After a few seconds I pushed myself up and found her running towards the exit she'd come from. " **Darkness Stream.** " A large beam of shadows shot from my fist and cut off her escape. Running to close the distance, I keep my attack focused on her forcing her to dive back behind her wall for cover. Cutting off my stream, I followed only to jump back to dodge a knife she'd drawn the moment she was out of sight.

I launched a volley of shadow arms at her but she ducked around her barrier again. I saw her run towards the door I'd come in and chased after her.

In the hallway, I created a bunch of tendrils in front of us to grab her, but she smacked the wall creating a lava geyser to destroy them. We were both forced to jump over the molten rock left on the floor. As we reached the stairway she caused both walls to liquifi. I created a solid path of darkness above the magma before it covered the entire floor.

" **Solarfl** -Oomph!" A voice called from the top of the stairs, followed by a grunt of pain. I got to the bottom in time to watch Luc doubled over in pain and get thrown down the stairs.

 _'What the hell was he doing here?'_ The thought came and went in the time it took to catch him with shadow tendrils, saving him from a painful death by boiling lava.

Putting him down at the top of the stairs, I continued my chase only to realize in horror that a flood of lava was rushing down the hallway. No time to plan, I threw up a dark barrier and ran back the way I came.

Thoughts ran through my head like lightning. How long will that barrier last? How long will it take for the lava to cool? Will I have enough magic power left to dig a way out of here?

In the light of his lantern I saw Luc running towards me. He had no idea what was coming. For once in his life he better listen. "Luc! Get upstairs!"

Maybe he heard the fear in my voice, maybe it was because I saved him, but he turned and ran as ordered. We made it to the stairs and had ascended to the next floor before the lava filled the lower corridor behind us. As it drained down the lower staircases Luc just looked at me with a shocked stare. "She uses lava magic." I answered the unspoken question.

"Ok next question, why are we still standing here and not chasing her? We can't let her get away with the relic."

"Because she just blocked our way out." I slumped against the wall. The adrenalin was starting to wear off. "Now what did you mean by you're no good in caves?"

"I can't, um." He mumbled the rest of the answer.

"Speak up."

"I can't use my magic underground ok." He almost shouted.

"Why not?" I asked, annoyed at his tone.

"I need light." He responded. Now he was shouting. "Celestial light and there isn't any of it underground."

I couldn't stop myself from shouting back. "Why didn't you tell me? Why are you even down here?" I didn't realize it before I'd spoke but it was true. If he couldn't use his magic then he couldn't defend himself, let alone fight.

"It's not exactly something I like to talk about." His tone became sarcastic. "Oh look at little Luc afraid of the dark. The sad thing is it's true, I am afraid of the dark. The cold, lightless void you people call the dark. But what was I supposed to do? Leave you here to die? Abandon the relic and hope lava bitch was just a common thief?"

I wasn't sure if he was worried more about me or the relic, but the thought of him afraid of the dark cut right through my anger. I couldn't help myself as I burst out laughing. "You, a light mage, afraid of the dark." I said as I calmed down, I must've needed a good laugh. "Alright then, I'll keep that in mind."

"You're a douche. You know that?" He stated, back in his angry voice. "I can feel the light all around me, Moving, buzzing, and bouncing around. I have lived with those feelings for since the age of twelve. For five years I have known that feeling the light around me made me powerful, put me in control. To have that feeling, that reassurance taken away. Imagine not being able to feel the wind on your face, or not being able to taste the air on your tongue. But it gets worse. Imagine not only that but knowing that you have become powerless to defend either yourself or others."

Now that I was feeling better, I sat through his rant and waited till he was done. "Alright I get it. I can't imagine what that'd be like and I don't want to. What I will say is I didn't start this. You insulted me the first time we met. Now how about we find a way out of here?"

"You forgetting something? We need to get that relic back before she figures out how it works." He reprimanded.

"There you go again, mixing up your priorities. We need to get out of her before we can chase her down." I got up and looked down the stairs and the remaining lava. "And what do you mean before she figures out how it works?

"Oh right, you didn't see it." He said, pulling some sort of amulet from his coat. "This is the symbol of the Aurora Gladii." He stared at me like he expected that to mean something.

"And?"

He sighed. "The Aurora Gladii were a group of mages dedicated to defeating the Black Wizard Zeref several hundred years ago. Sufficient to say they failed but their leader was, among other things, a master artificer. After Zeref destroyed their headquarters a lot of the items he had created vanished. I always assumed that they were destroyed along with the tower. But the fact that one of their members was here? Along with the presence of some kind of relic suggests that at least one of his creations survived. Which is a problem if said creation just fell into the hands of a dark guild."

I tried to remember if she had a guild tattoo, but I could've missed it in the dark. "Well first things first." I created a dark bridge over the cooling magma. "Let's go."

* * *

 **\- POV: Lucifer -**

The journey back to the surface, the second time for me that day, felt longer than it actually was. We grabbed our bags, offered a hurried explanation to the archeology team, and received our pay before taking off in the direction they said the thief had run off.

We searched the woods in that direction for several hours before stumbling upon a small path with fresh footprints that seemed to wind back and head up into the mountains. It was getting late, so with no other leads it became take the path or keep blundering around in the forest till it got dark.

The trees began to thin out as we climbed higher. The sun finally sank below the horizon to reveal a full moon and mostly cloudy skies. Luckily Aidan had thought to borrow a lantern from the dig team before we left. The night sky was calming and the adrenaline and anxiety that had filled me in the cave began to melt away.

I began to wonder what exactly the artifact could be. Light Binder had created many artifacts during his lifetime any number of which could cause terrible destruction in the wrong hands… or could be as harmless as an enchanted doorstop. He'd had a rather wide range when it came to artificing. Although it was unlikely that one of his disciples would have risked life and limb to save something relatively worthless. In this fucked up world something's worth usually equaled its ability to turn someone into a pile of ashes.

In what was starting to become a trend, our hunt was mostly silent with only scattered conversation between me and my guildmate. Soon even that sparse conversation petered out.

* * *

The moon was high in the rapidly darkening sky by the time anything of note occured. That thing came in the form of a vulcan leaping down from its hiding spot, ready to waylay passers by.

"Ho ho ho, humans have we? Give me all your food and women." The vulcan yelled jumping back and forth.

"We have no women." Moore responded. I sighed. _'Why is Moore talking to the monkey?'_

"Then give me all your food" the vulcan demanded.

"No." I stated.

"Then I will make food out of YOU!" It yelled as it prepared to attack.

"He's all yours Sunshine." Aidan snarked as he stepped back.

"If you insist!" I said stepping forward. As I raised my hand to gather the thin starlight, my sleeve slipped down to reveal the guild mark on my forearm illuminated in the lantern light.

The vulcan leaped back, hair on end. "Fairy Tail? No no no no no!" It exclaimed as it fell to its knees. I shot Moore a confused glance. He merely raised an eyebrow clearly as unsure of what was happening as I.

The vulcan started bowing rapidly as it groveled. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't know, please forgive me!"

"Oookkkayy" I said as I adopted my best arrogant pose. "Why should I forgive such a weakling like yourself? You attacked your betters, trash. That can't go unpunished." I continued to gather the starlight to my hand.

"Please I will do anything," the hapless creature cried "PLEASE!"

"Hmm." I hummed as I stroked my chin pretending to think "There is one thing a weakling like yourself might be able to help with. We are following a women, red hair, kind of a bitch, Did she come this way?"

"Yes! YES! She kicked me away when I attacked her. She was very strong. I mean not as strong as you of course. I just mean stronger than other people. Oh crap I didn't mean to say-" The now groveling vulcan stammered.

I waved off his explanation "Yeah whatever, where did this woman go?"

The beast pointed further up the mountain pass. I sighed. _'Well if nothing else it confirmed that we had been going the right way. There's that at least.'_ We'd walked about ten feet beyond the still terrified vulcan when an odd thought struck me. I turned around to face the beast.

"Oh yeah, and if I hear that you have attacked or harassed any more innocent travelers, and trust me I will hear of it if you do, I will not hesitate to track you down and deal with you permanently."

I left the implied threat to hang in the air as we started moving on. My thoughts left the vulcan and turned to our quarry. It was then that the first raindrops began to hit my head.

* * *

 **\- POV: Aidan -**

 _'Why rain? Why tonight? We need to track someone and this could wash away any clues she might've left.'_ I looked up into the dark storm clouds and wondered when they rolled in. There hadn't been a cloud in the sky when they'd left the dig camp. Was this storm bad luck or magic?

Luc clearly didn't like the rain any more than I did. "As much as I hate to say it, we need to find shelter for the night. Even if we kept going and managed to catch up we'd just as likely walk right past her in the rain and the dark. Furthermore even if we did find her my magic will be severely weakened by the storm clouds."

"Right." I agreed. "Not trying to be rude, but if you're weakened underground and in the rain when is your magic useful?"

Luc shot me an annoyed glare "It's not so much that's it raining as much as that it is raining at night. Moonlight and starlight aren't strong enough to break through the clouds. It's different if it's raining during the day. Enough sunlight makes it through to not make a huge difference to my fighting ability. There are even a few spells dedicated to working with sunlight in the rain. As for being underground, I just avoid going into caves whenever I can. It's not that difficult."

We stopped under an overhang but with no wood to build a fire we were in for a cold, wet night. After laying out my clothes to dry, I slipped into my bedroll looking forward to some well earned sleep. I had a fight, an underground chase, and we've been walking all afternoon, I should've fallen asleep instantly.

Luc must've been having a similar problem. "Hey Aidan?" he turned to his head towards me.

"Yeah?"

"You haven't been in the guild much longer than me, have you? I joined the guild because I needed the money. So why did you?"

Slightly pleased that he finally asked about something important, I gave my answer, "Because I'm entirely self taught and I'm looking for someone with magic like mine to learn from. Where better to find wizards then a guild? How'd you learn yours?"

Luc tilted his head up and stared at the ceiling of the overhang a bit before answering reluctantly, "I had a teacher of sorts I suppose. At least for the basics. A lot of the more advanced stuff I had to learn from old books. Thought to be honest what I know is so very little compared to the skills of the Celestial Light Mages of old. Most of the field was lost hundreds of years ago."

I gave a slight chuckle. "So we both use rare magics and neither of us have any idea how strong our magic can get. You're light and I'm dark. Maybe fate does have a sense of humor."

"Maybe." Luc agreed, equally pleased by the irony.

"Well if you're looking for a place to stay, the place I live has apartments for 40,000 a month. It's a cramped shit hole but it's cheap as dirt and the water is safe to drink. Now get some sleep."

"At least the apartment won't be moving at several hundred miles per hour. If I had a Jewel for every time I had to sleep on a train. But you're right. Goodnight."

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **This is a collab with my friend Zorn42421 and our first posted work for both of us.**

 **Our only goal for it to not be total trash. Non-constructive reviews will be deleted and/or ignored. That being said, I hope you enjoy.**

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	3. Chapter 3: Dark Temper

**To Cast Long Shadows**

 **Chapter 3: Dark Temper**

* * *

 **\- POV: Lucifer -**

The morning brought an end to the rain but not to my disquiet. I'm not sure whether Moore felt the same tension, he seemed like a pretty laid back individual, but then again he didn't really understand the magnitude of what might be happening. The artifacts Edward created, some of them were powerful beyond measure. The thought of one of them in the hands of a Dark Guild sent chills down my spine.

We quickly packed up camp and set out again. The rain had washed away any trace of our quarry but we were in a narrow mountain pass. Unless she had doubled back and passed us in the night there was really only one way she could have gone. We made slow progress at first. All the mud from last night's storm made the winding path treacherous, however once the sun came up and started to dry out the soil the going became much easier and my mood began to lift. _'Ah the sun. How I missed you old friend.'_ I stretched my arms out trying to take in as much of the glorious warmth as possible. My content must have made it to my face.

"Someone seems happy this morning." I rolled my eyes at the remark.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Moore." I firmly denied.

"Oh come on, you've barely made a complaint since we packed up camp. That's not like you at all. Where's the melodramatic teenage mess that I've come to know and mock?" I flipped him the bird, much to his amusement. "That's more like it. Seriously though, I don't think I have ever seen you smile like that before. It's refreshing and creepy at the same time."

Our banter carried on like that for a while. I'd never admit it out loud but it was nice to have someone to talk to. I had spent most of the last few years traveling alone.

"Hey Moore."

"Yeah?"

"You said you wanted to learn more about your magic right" I continued "Well I think I know a library or-"

I cut off as Aidan held his hand up to stop me. Well that was rude. I opened my mouth to deliver a suitably insulting retort but he beat me to the first word.

"Do you hear that?" he asked, "Does it feel warmer to you?"

"Why would it be getting warmer?" I spat back scathingly. "We're on top of a freaking mountain." Although now that he mentioned it, I could hear a faint noise in the distance. A kind of spitting, hissing noise. Of course that really didn't prepare me for the river of lava that came pouring down the path ahead.

"Oh that's why." I said stupidly, still in shock before my brain kicked in and started looking for an escape. Aidan was a few steps ahead of me and leaping up to a ledge further up on the wall of the pass. I managed to scramble high enough to grasp his hand and he pulled me the rest of the way.

"Are you guys still following me? I know I'm pretty but most guys would've taken the hint by now."

It took me a minute to locate her. She was standing on top of a boulder higher up on the opposite side of the pass. Aidan had already started to move around to flank her. How he planned to get over the river of lava was anyone's guess but I assumed he had a plan.

"Wait a minute, how did you even know we were following you?" I asked, trying to keep her attention on me.

"Really? With how loud you guys bicker how could I not know?" She shot back.

She wasn't wrong. I changed tact "Why do you want the artifact anyway?"

"I'm sorry, is this the "I reveal my evil plan" part? I'm not that cliche."

It was at this point that Aidan chose to enact his plan. He jumped across the lava stream to a rock on the other side. I have to admit I expected something more than that, but it worked. Unfortunately I wasn't the only one who noticed.

The rogue mage quickly half turned to face Aidan, launching a ball of lava at him. He threw up a wall of darkness deflecting it into the river with a loud plop. I cursed before throwing my own magic into the fray. Sunlight flashed from my hand but she nimbly jumped over it, landing on a different rock in the process. God she was agile. Moore followed up sending tendrils of shadow racing towards our enemy. She pulled lava from the inferno below to block them while continuing to avoid my attacks, much to my increasing annoyance.

"Stay still damn it, **Solarflare** " I pulled down beam of sunlight down on her. It barely grazed her as she spun to avoid it. Aidan however used the opening to close in, jumping up and pushing off the rock face to land next to our opponent. It quickly became a mixture of melee and small-scale magic with me throwing in my own magic whenever I thought it was safe.

For a while it was fairly evenly matched. Aidan was obviously physically stronger then the lava mage but she was pretty damn hard to hit as she danced around our attacks. Time however proved our ally. She might have been better than either of us on own but fighting two skilled opponents simultaneously wasn't something she could pull off for any real amount of time.

She seemed to realize this and quickly pulled a roll of fabric from her bag and threw it past Aidan down towards the torrent of molten rock, before leaping across the lava at me. After just barely missing her with my Godray, I clumsily tried to punch her, hitting air as she kicked my legs out from under me. As I fell however I managed to grab hold of her leg, stopping her escape. Magic wasn't really an option for either of us in this precarious position, but it didn't stop her from kicking me in the head repeatedly. I clung on stubbornly despite the pain and eventually felt her go limp.

"I thought you said you'd be better above ground, but here I am doing all the work." Aidan said as he reached down and pulled me up.

"Melee combat isn't exactly my strong suit. I like to leave that to less intellectually inclined." I shot back. "Did you get the artifact?"

"That's the second time you've made excuses after failing to help me. Are you trying to get me killed or are you just afraid to hit girls?" I couldn't tell if he was being serious or just messing with me.

"If I was trying to get you killed I would have used my full magic while you were stuck in close combat with our enemy. Now to repeat myself, did you get the artifact?"

Aidan's face hardened. He held his hand out over the lava river, a black tendril shot over from the other side of the pass and deposited a roll of fabric into his arms. "Here's your stupid relic." He let it fall to the ground. "Hope it was worth all your effort."

I let out a sigh clearly I wasn't as unobsessed with my past as I had thought.

"For what it's worth Aidan, thank you." I said as my gaze turned from my angry guildmate to the unconscious mage lying between us. "So uh, what do we do with her?"

* * *

 **\- POV: Aidan -**

The nearest town was about two days from our recent battlefield. Unfortunately with the mysterious woman slowing us down we weren't going to make it that soon.

"And I was hoping for a shower tonight." Our extra guest complained for the third time that hour.

"Will you shut up? One whiny brat I can deal with, I don't need another." I tried to keep my voice emotionless but after 40 hours of whining my patience was at its limit.

"Well if you don't want to deal with me, just give me my stuff and let me go." She tugged on her backpack, which I was wearing under my own. "I swear you'll never see me again."

"No."

"Well how about removing these then." She said, holding her arms out in front of me. Black tendrils of magic tied her wrists together before looping around her arms to her neck and down each of her legs. She'd quickly discovered they would constrict and suffocate her if she used magic or tried to run.

"No."

She moved in front of me and made a pouty face. "Come on. You've already shown you can beat me. I won't bother you again."

"Hence why you've run from me twice now. I don't feel like chasing you down a third. Now get out of my face." I said pushing past her.

"Wanna know something? I like your whole strong, silent attitude and I love strong men." She grabbed my arm and pressed it against her breast accent her point.

"And now you're back to trying to flirt your way out. You'd be better off trying that on Luc, I'd bet he's still a virgin." I raised my voice to make sure the boy ahead of us heard. He merely stuck up his middle finger.

"See he's offering to fuck you." I heard him groan and mutter something. "Are you gonna take him up on that or are you gonna tell us your name and who you're working for?"

She turned away and finally both she and Luc were silent at the same time. Of course, my peace only lasted a few minutes.

"Ok you win. My name is Michelle Moto of the Mermaid Heel guild. Will you let me go now?"

"Prove it. Show me your guild mark."

"It's on my thigh and before you ask, I'm not taking off my pants for you, pervert."

"No need. I already know you're lying. I checked you for a guild mark while you were unconscious."

The look of shock on her face was priceless. And then the screaming started. "You what?! I could have you arrested for that, you pervert! What else did you do to me?"

"Oh so _now_ you have modesty. Just a few minutes ago you were offering yourself to me." My face was so smug right now. Had I been in her shoes I would've punched me as hard as I could.

"But if you really want to know, I checked your pockets, carried you over my shoulder for several hours, and tied you up with the spell you've been annoying me about ever since. Quite honestly I'm a bit surprised you didn't try to imply that I must be into bondge or something in your previous flirting attempts over the last two days." Ok, I'll admit it. That was too much sarcasm.

She looked furious. I decided to cut her off before she could say anything. "I don't know if anything you've said in the last two days was true, but here's what I think about you. You're annoying, manipulative, and now you're a liar on top of it." She tried to interrupt but I kept talking. "I liked you better when we first met. You didn't hide or lie. You can right out and confidently announced your challenge and I respected that. So how about you calm down and have some dignity. I'd rather not remember a good opponent as a whiny brat."

She looked like she was about to respond but then all of our attention was drawn to the sound of rocks rolling down the slope.

Three vulcans slide down onto the path in front of us and two more behind. The biggest one called. "Give us all your food and women!"

"Monkeys again." Luc said before raising his voice. "Do you guys know who you're messing with? We're Fairy Tail wizards." He pulled back his right sleeve, showing his guild mark as a ball of light gathered in his right hand.

The smaller beasts looks confused but Luc had clearly guessed right, the leader immediately started whimpering. "Fairy Tail again? No no no! Please! This isn't what it looks like! We weren't going to attack you! Have mercy!"

"I warned you about what would happen, but here you are. Clearly this time I'll have make my warning a bit more memorable" He promised letting ice seep into his voice.

"Hold on a minute Luc. It turns out we do have a woman we can give them."

"We do?" Luc asked.

"You do?" The vulcan questioned, equally puzzled.

"Yeah, though it depends on her." I turned to meet her dagger-like gaze. "Tell us your real name, who you are working for, and how you knew there was a relic buried in that place?"

"You won't give me away. If you do I could just escape and all the time you've been dragging me with you will be for nothing." Maybe she was smarter then she looked.

"A good point but you lack one key piece of information. My dark magic isn't affected by range. Those little binding your wearing, I can keep that spell active from 100 feet or 100 miles, it makes no difference to me. So how do you suppose you'll escape a group of vulcans without using magic and without being allowed to run away. Well I guess you could try those but you won't get far before you pass out." I paused for a moment, letting her think it over.

"So I'll ask again." I lowered my voice to a more threatening level. "What's your real name, who you are working for, and how did you know it was there?"

There was a very tense moment. Birds chirped, stones shuffled under Luc's foot, I could hear her nervous breathing. Not one vulcan dared to move.

Finally she broke the silence. "Neomi Oliveira. I'm a magical treasure hunter employed by Petyr Johanne. He acquired an ancient journal and paid me to find the sanctuary and any antiques inside."

I looked for any sign of a lie and found none, so I turned to the lead monkey. "I'm sorry, it looks like I won't be giving her too you after all, but I'll let you off the hook this once." The big beast started bowing and thanking me repeatedly "But ONLY if you all leave right now!"

He needed no provocation, running as fast as his legs could carry him. After seeing their strongest member bail on them, the other four quickly retreated.

I started walking again and after a few seconds I realized neither Neomi nor Luc had moved. Turing back to look at them, I simply grinned and said, "I think that went well."

* * *

 **\- POV: Lucifer -**

It was a small town. It shouldn't have taken me as long as it did to find an inn, but truth be told my thoughts were rather scattered at the moment. It had been a long couple of days and I was still trying to get my mind in order. I didn't know exactly what I expected from joining a guild but it wasn't this. Walking and fighting, so much walking and fighting. And the fighting? I grimaced at the thought. As much as I was loathe to admit it, I had been fairly useless in these last two fights.

 _'Goddammit.'_ My foot lashed out in anger sending a rock flying down the path, only to end in loud clunking sound as it bounced off one of the buildings. Startled out of my thoughts by the noise, I looked up at the building I hit. The Red Dragon Pub? Huh. Well that was lucky.

After a brief argument with the innkeep about whether or not we really needed two beds, that by the end of I was about ready to strangle him, I managed to book a room for us. It was big enough I suppose. A couple of beds, some chairs, and a full length mirror sitting in the corner for some reason. I had stayed at better but also at a lot worse. I had done a lot of this over the past few years. Staying in inns I mean.

While I waited for Aidan to come back from dealing with lava bitch, my scholar's curiosity got the better than me. I unrolled the cloth to examine the artifact we had fought so hard for. _'Wait What? Where's the artifact?'_ My eyes swung back and forth frantically searching.

I was honestly ashamed by the amount of time it took me to realize that the cloth itself was the artifact. My time spent around the likes of my guildmates must be affecting me more than I thought.

I straightened it out on the floor, I took a moment to admire the feel of the fine fabric between my fingers. It was an intricate, pure white cloak, embroidered with silver star patterns along the edges that formed into a larger pattern from the bottom up the center. The physical craftsmanship alone was phenomenal. Say what you will about the arrogance of the Auroi Gladii, they didn't half-ass things. The cloak was attached around the neck by way of a clasp, faced by single piece of onyx inset with tiny silver gems, giving the appearance of a starry night sky. The collar was flanked on either side by the words Ad and Astra.

I hooked the cloak around my neck as I walked over to the mirror, the blindingly white fabrics swishing around my legs. I looked utterly ridiculous. Besides being almost impossible to look at without straining your eyes, the cloak wrapped hung lower than one was meant to, apparently made for someone of greater size. Then came the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway, startling me. I quickly folded the cloak back up, really not wanting to be caught in something so flashy.

My suspicions were proven correct as the room door opened to reveal my erstwhile companion. I assumed by the general air of annoyance things hadn't gone well.

"What happened?"

"She wasn't wanted for anything." he growled as he fell backwards onto one of the beds. "That's the second prisoner I've turned in that wasn't worth jack."

I sighed in acknowledgement. Just my luck.

"So that's the relic we risked our lives for?" He said bitterly.

"Don't be dramatic, you risked your life for a chance at payback and you know it." I joked, trying to lighten up the mood. I nearly flinched from the withering glare I got in return.

"Payback? Where'd you get that impression? She ran from me both times because she couldn't beat me."

There was a short silence after that. I returned to examining the artifact. "What is it anyway?"

"A cloak of some sort." I answered absentmindedly.

"Really?" He shot back with biting sarcasm.

"From the design alone I assume it probably has to do with stars. Starlight probably. Beyond that I can't really say, reflecting it, storing it maybe. It will take some time to figure out for sure."

"You seemed to be under the impression it was dangerous earlier."

"It might have been if it was made by the person I think it was." I retorted, "He was pretty damn powerful. I didn't want anything like that to fall into the hands of some idiot collector or worse a dark guild. I refuse to let them, umph!" I cut off as my vision filled with white.

"Why?" I asked as I glared at the grinning culprit.

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's because I wanted too."

"What are you? Fiv-" The second pillow knocked me off the bed and I sprawled out on the floor.

"Stop that!" I snapped. I managed to dodge the third pillow entirely, grabbed it from where it landed and returned it to its owner at an appropriate velocity.

It was sunset two days later when we finally made it back to Magnolia and guild. We made much faster progress without having to drag around our unwilling traveling companion.

"Home, Sweet Home" Aidan said, yawning as we walked into the guild.

I held back for a minute before entering myself "Home, huh?"

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **This is a collab with my friend Zorn42421 and our first posted work for both of us.**

 ** **Disclaimer: We don't own the FT, anime, manga, or anything else. If we did, it wouldn't be fanfiction.****

 **Our only goal for it to not be total trash. Non-constructive reviews will be deleted and/or ignored. All other reviews welcome. That being said, I hope you enjoy.  
**

 **So It's been a pain to get Zorn to write for this story over the months. Worse then that we both agree that Luke and Aidan are both too similar, both being very sarcastic characters. (Though I would argue that's the only similarity between them) He has decided to remake Luc's character in the future to be different, more know-it-all-y. This may or may not effect the next chapter. No promises.  
**

 ** **Aidan** (Who used to be called Dayln) has had his name changed as a inside joke. Hopefully I got all instances of the old name changed.  
**

 **Hoping we get more done soon. Chapter 4 promises some backstory, some old friends, and much laughter at Luc's expense. See you then.**

 **Stealthweasle01**


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